Thus, we proclaimed good works as the main vehicle for salvation and nearness to God, and defined it as various moral acts such as consideration, treating others in friendly ways, softness, and others. One may wonder how these acts, some of which seem like trivial and ephemeral deeds in daily life—such as not talking loudly on the phone at 2 a.m. or treating the person next to us with good manners—can possibly lead to any profound spiritual state or insight.
No wonder that one wonders like this, for in the spiritual schools dominant in the West—which are modern Christianity and some forms of Yoga and Neo-Buddhism—spirituality is considered something different from daily life. Not just different, but sometimes distant; and not just distant, but sometimes even disagreeing, opposite, and hostile.
In Christianity, this whole world and its activities are but the fruit of original sin, and thus are sin themselves. Life is something to turn away from and repent. Similar to this, in current Hindu and Yoga traditions, this world is an illusion, an endless wheel of suffering known as Samsara that turns and turns forever to the soul's destruction. And the goal should be to be released from this never-ending trauma and angst, which is the life of this world.
Thus, for these schools and religions, spirituality is about "something else" and "somewhere else." It has to be done in an isolated room and in time off from working hours. The idea that spirituality can exist and coexist in the middle of the crowd, in the middle of the day, and in the middle of a bazaar is not common. All spiritual seekers expect spirituality to offer a separate domain and a separate set of practices.
But in our path, there is no such separation and partition as imagined and expected by some. There are indeed spiritual worlds, realms of angels, heavens, and other exaltations. But the path to these is this very life in this world. Our religious practices are embedded in everyday life. They appear in the form of good behavior, in the form of charity, in the form of character and persona, in the form of fighting oppression, and other manifestations of goodness and virtue.
In this situation, not talking loudly on the phone at 2 a.m. becomes of central importance; treating others with a polite face and soft manner becomes the focus; and etiquette and ethics will be the content of the Sunday preaching in our churches and temples. This material world is not a futile state; it is not anti-spirit, but a manifestation of the spirit and a path to its higher states.
In our religion and culture, a spiritual man is not depicted as a recluse, a monk with bowed head and raised hands, or as a skeletal Sanyasin in an orange robe fasting and meditating all the time in a forest or ruins, but as a strong and masculine knight with a grave face and a sword in his hand. The sword is not for oppression but for protecting the poor against the oppressor, and the grave face is the determination to fight Evil and spread justice.
This might seem like an antithesis and counter-picture of a holy man. But for us, holiness means performing good works, and to perform good works, one has to toil, one has to use tools and swords, one has to engage and enrage. Goodness and justice are not established by themselves, but need to be established by man, and that man is the holy man as pictured in our path.
Thus, a holy and spiritual man participates in the activities and efforts of the world much in the same way that a worldly man does. Verily, a worldly and a Godly man have similarities: both go to work, both fight for promotion, both endeavor to obtain money and power, but with two utterly different purposes: one for self-importance and self-pleasure, and the other for protecting others and spreading goodness and equality. This is the meaning of the ancient allegory of two birds sitting on a branch; one was eating the fruit, and the other was sharing the fruit. These are the primordial images of a hedonistic and a holy man.
In our path, we are not to sit in an isolated corner all day, doing prayer and doing nothing else. Indeed, we set a time for prayer and meditation on God, but afterwards we come out and do all sorts of activities, but with good intention and as part of the Good-Evil battle.
As the ancient myth narrates, in the beginning of time when the two twins of Good and Evil separated, they did not look at each other with favor, and Evil vowed to destroy the Good and all its luminous creation. And the Good set a limited time for a battle between their forces before Evil is utterly destroyed and cast into the abyss. As a result of that battle, this world was created, this life was created, and man is created to be the central figure in this cosmic battle and scheme of things.
This battle is embedded in every moment of human life. In every situation in everyday life, these primordial twins of Good and Evil appear and place their paths in front of us. It is for us to choose between these paths, and the whole essence and sum total of our religion is whether we choose the path of Good or the path of Evil, whether we adopt softness and respect to treat the angry person in front of us or choose to confront and insult him back, whether we choose to give a ride to the waiting passenger in the rain or choose to race away, whether we choose honest income or choose to take a bribe and deny other people's rights.
Each choice makes a change in our existence level: good choices raise it, and evil choices lower it. At the end of this life, those with raised and exalted existence rank will return to their primordial abode in the vicinity of the good God and become angels in His kingdom of light. But those with lower existence rank will be handed over to Evil and become demons in the darkness of its kingdom in the bottomless abyss.
So this very world and very life is the path to salvation. There is no need to resort to monasteries or caves, no need for separate rituals and mantras, no need to ascend to other worlds and realms. Salvation is here, in this very life, in this very situation, in this street, in this bus, in this office. Everywhere and in every moment, the paths of good and evil are here, in front of you, and the True religion and True worship is to choose the Good path.
This is the goal and purpose of this life. This life is not a futile phenomenon, something to run away from and unrelated to salvation, but in words similar to the Gospel (John 14:6): it is the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father except through it (through living a virtuous life in it).
Evil tries hard to steal and conceal this truth, and to replace "good works" as the means of salvation with other things, with "rituals," with "meditation," with "cross," and other unrelated terms. That's how all these corrupted religions of today came forth whose followers do everything but good works and are everything but virtuous men and women.
So we see churches in every street and district and people in them focusing on theology and converting others; we see Mosques everywhere and people in them performing Salat rituals and growing beards; and we see Buddhist temples and people in them doing meditation all the time, but good works nobody does, helping and befriending others nobody does, fighting with corruption, financial inequality, and global greed nobody does. The path of virtue and good works is forgotten. Not a single religion of today emphasizes good works and deeds. And this is not by accident but by accurate planning of cosmic negative forces.
Evil knows the path by which man can obtain salvation, and is looking upon the earth to see who is treading that path. And then it blocks that man by shooting arrows of distractions, doubt, and other burdens. For a man who is walking in this path, his face is beaming with Divine light. And Evil is jealous of that Divine light; it hates it; it wants to stifle it, and it gives him a diabolic pleasure.
When the battle between Good and Evil began for a set time, Evil said to the Lord, "I will turn your creatures away from you and turn them to my worship." Evil swore to sit on the "straight path" and prevent its passengers. The straight path is the pure religion we are preaching: the path of developing ethics and virtue, the path of doing good works, solving problems, fighting with oppression, and living by Truth and Truth alone. And it is in this path that the tent of Evil and its minions is erected, and the walker in this path will soon confront them and will be harassed, blocked, and challenged.
This is while other paths are broad and open with no hindrance. You may spend hours and hours following the actions of today's fake religions, or engage in hedonistic and other useless mundane activities, and Evil will not bother you, and the time passes peacefully. But once you step in the path of goodness, once you try to change the world, then you hear a voice that says, "change your direction!", and everyone will turn against you. For it is then that all the negative forces will attack from within and without.
But worry not, child! This is a good sign! That is the sign that the Gospel talks about: "Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceedingly glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you" (Matthew 5:11-12). These persecutions are signs that Evil and its demons are really threatened and feel insecure, and so they started taking action against you. It's a great sign! A star in the sky shone and became so intense that the whole sky became broad daylight, and then all the evils rushed to that light like robbers attacking gold.